In the increasingly “purple” state of Virginia, it wasn’t long ago that former Democrat party national chairman and corrupt Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe(who has never been elected to any public office) enjoyed a rather comfortable double-digit lead in the polls against his chief opponent to be the next governor, Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
As recently as late October, polling by The Washington Post, Roanoke College, and Rasmussen had McAuliffe beating Cuccinelli by 12, 15, and 17 points, respectively.
But all that has suddenly changed, and changed dramatically.
The election is less than four days away–to be held on Tuesday November 5th–and over the last week or so, things have suddenly shifted in Cuccinelli’s favor. Even though he still trails McAuliffe by 7.7 points in the Real Clear Politics polling average, and in all polls, two recent polls have him closing, and closing fast.
The latest polls posted by Quinnipiac and Emerson College have Cuccinelli within 4 points and 2 points of McAuliffe, respectively.
The previously confident McAuliffe has taken to exhorting his supporters against complacency, and is now warning them that he could lose.
This is a race which signals many Virginians’ disillusionment and disgust with both major parties, as Libertarian party candidate Robert Sarvis’ poll numbers have hovered around 10 percent(the Emerson College poll has him favored by 13 percent of likely voters). The Richmond Times-Dispatch declined to endorse any candidate in the race, opining that “The major-party candidates have earned the citizenry’s derision.” The Charlottesville(home of the University of Virginia) Daily Progress went as far as recommending that voters write-in the name of outgoing Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who had sought his party’s nomination, but withdrew his bid when the Virginia GOP opted for a nominating convention instead of a state-wide open primary.
As for the sudden surge for Cuccinelli, speculation seems to focus mainly on certain key dynamics.
First, we can surmise that whatever margin in McAuliffe’s favor which could have been be attributed to the democrats’ success in using their mainstream media operatives to falsely blame republicans for the partial government shutdown is now being rapidly eclipsed by the astonishingly horrible disaster and national awakening to betrayal occasioning the utterly failed abomination that is the mis-launch of Obamacare, associated with democrats.
Whereas for awhile there, republicans were seen by the generally uninformed electorate as the bad guys, now it’s becoming painfully obvious (to even the democrats’ cheerleader lapdogs at major media outlets) that Obama and his entire administration, and his useful-idiot democrat legions everywhere, have ushered in a national nightmare that is destroying and depriving health care options for millions. Cuccinelli now looks more like the good guy, by merely being a republican.
Highlighting that contrast is the fact that while democrats have been running ads trying to depict Ken Cuccinelli as some kind of villain for being the first state Attorney general to sue to stop Obamacare, such ads surely can only be backfiring in the minds of numerous voters, as “Cooch” will of course be seen by increasing numbers instead as a hero for his valiant attempt to save them from such a horrible law.
Furthermore, its been noted that in the final days of a campaign, some usual republican voters have a tendency to abandon enchantment with third-party candidates and “come home” to their major party’s choice. Whether that is a feature of what will take place in Virginia this coming Tuesday remains to be seen. Sarvis’ numbers haven’t really decreased, overall. But the historical pattern favors Cuccinelli in that regard.
I’m not so optimistic these days that I would bet on a Cuccinelli win. After all, McAuliffe still has the lead. But even McAuliffe himself is telling his supporters to ignore the polls.
In an email intended to rally his troops to not take anything for granted, and to “get out the vote,” McAuliffe admonished, “No matter what pollsters are reporting, newspapers are writing, and your friends might be telling you — we’re facing two hard truths. In off-year elections like this one, Tea Party voters turn out more reliably than Democrats. For 45 years, the political party that controls the White House has lost our governor’s race the next year.  In 2009, fewer than 40 percent of Virginia voters cast a ballot for governor, despite the fact that nearly 70 percent voted in the presidential election the year before.”
Clearly, McAuliffe is becoming a little bit worried by the changing polls showing his rival gaining on him.
I’ve been worried about the outcome of this race for awhile now, but I’m a bit less worried lately.
To end this on a rather light and bawdy note; what was it again, that some people say about Terry McAuliffe’s main political benefactor, who also once tried to shove socialized medicine down our country’s throats? Oh yes–“See you next Tuesday.”
